Microsoft divides into five business groups

Anticipated reorganisation prepares company for post-DoJ world

Microsoft has split itself into five separate parts, as predicted here. The company's business groups target specific categories of user: home and retail products; business productivity; developer; consumer Windows and commerce; and business enterprise. Microsoft president Steve Ballmer described the new organisation as the "reinvention" of Microsoft. "Software is going to play a far broader role in our lives than we can even imagine today," he added. "When we took stock of our ability to meet these future opportunities, it became clear that we were organized to meet today's needs but not those of the next decade." The reorganisation neatly divides Microsoft into business units that could, depending on the outcome of the company's settlement talks with the US Department of Justice, make it easier to hive off parts into independent companies. ® Visit The Register later this week for full coverage of the Microsoft reorganisation.